Some Android questions

[agabrielson1-Wuw85uim5zDR7s880joybQ at public.gmane.org (Anthony Gabrielson)]

From: Jared Carlson [mailto:jcarlson23-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org] 
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 12:13 PM
To: Anthony Gabrielson; James Kramer
Cc: Boston Linux and Unix
Subject: Re: Some Android questions

 

Hi Anthony,

 

Mind expounding on that a bit?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  I've done
some iPhone work and development is pretty stable although I did file a bug
report for the iPad SDK released back in January.  

 

One of the things I didn't enjoy finding out with Android is that while I
can compile C code to run via JNI on the android, to link the C code I have
to import the shared objects off of the phone itself and while I know that's
unsupported it seems that Google should have thought about highly efficient
embedded code, and that developers might want to write it once, rather than
recode...

 

Just wanted to hear...

 

- Jared

 

 

Hi Jared,

                You bet.  The main problem I have starts with how they
maintain their kernel additions - they don't seem to.  Since they are
leveraging the Linux kernel I think they should properly integrate their
changes into the kernel for a number reasons like maintaining compatibility
for future kernels (see link for a few more reasons); they haven't done that
and in fact their code has been removed from the kernel tree because they
are not playing nice with others:

http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/android-kernel-problems.html

 

I think this issue is going to compound and bite them as they move forward.
Depending on what Google's source tree & documentation looks like they are
either be going to be limited to the current kernel they are currently
running or they will have to graft changes into new kernels as they become
available to fix problem N.  They are producing lots of devices all of which
have slightly different configurations which will make the job all the more
difficult.   

http://infoworld.com/d/mobilize/google-androids-self-destruction-derby-begin
s-863

 

>From what I have read about Google it also seems like their developers like
to move around between projects (which is great), but I think that will
really complicate problems since they haven't properly integrated (and I can
only assume documented) code.  Based on those facts the device doesn't seem
maintainable; it actually seems like its waiting for major drama.  As
problems pop up in the kernel or Google's security model Google will have to
do a non trivial amount of work to update to a newer kernel.  The amount of
work will obviously grow as more and changes are made to the kernel and it
continues to evolve.

 

Perhaps I'm making more of this than I should, but with everything going on
out on the web these days and the advanced attacks that are occurring it has
me concerned about purchasing a device like that (which I actually really do
want, but won't buy for the reasons already stated).  

 

I do think the phone will be great if no major problems pop up in your new
every two period and you actually upgrade every year or two.

 

Anthony